A federal appeals court rejected a Grand Forks man's arguments that authorities coaxed him to use the Internet to arrange a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old girl.

In a ruling Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction of Paul Robert Dickson, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for using the Internet to entice a minor for sex.

Dickson, 49, was conversing in an Internet chat room in July 2004 with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old girl, court records show. The person, who called herself Katie, was a female undercover police officer.

He exchanged addresses with Katie, told her he wanted to have sex with her and asked to meet her in the parking lot of a Grand Forks motel that evening, the appeals court's opinion says. After Dickson showed up in the parking lot, authorities arrested him.

In his appeal, Dickson argued authorities did not have enough evidence to convict him. He claimed he changed his mind in the parking lot about going through with the sexual encounter, and that he was lured into committing the crime.

The appeals court said there was adequate evidence Dickson knew the "girl" was 15 years old, and that police did not entrap him.

"Dickson initiated the conversation with Katie, tried to persuade her to engage in sexual activity, arranged to meet her for that purpose, and was waiting for her at the arranged time and place when he was arrested," the court's opinion says.

Dickson was convicted in September 2004 after a three-day trial. He is now being held at a federal prison medical center in Rochester, Minn., according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. He is scheduled for release in February 2009.